Attempts have been made in the prior art to miniaturize antennas for communications. FIG. 1A for example depicts an end-loaded shortened dipole antenna 10 with a meander-line counterpoise 20. A commercially available antenna 10 such as shown in FIG. 1A suitable for cellular telephony is marketed by Radio Shack Corp. The size of antenna 10 may be compared to the enlarged U.S. quarter, shown in FIG. 1B, the enlargement being the same for FIGS. 1A and 1B. A common resonant frequency for the prior art antenna of FIG. 1A is about 870 MHz.
FIG. 1C depicts antenna 10 used with a cellular telephone 30. While antennas such as antenna 10 do function, they are several cm in length or must be pulled-out to a length of several cm. This length makes the antenna and/or cellular telephone (or other transceiver device) somewhat vulnerable to breakage. Clearly a smaller version of a cellular telephone-type antenna would be beneficial.
As described in the following sections, fractal patterns are preferably used with the present invention. By way of further background, applicant refers to and incorporates herein by reference his PCT patent application PCT/US96/13086, international filing date 8 Aug. 1996, priority date 9 Aug. 1995, entitled “Fractal Antennas and Resonators, and Loading Elements”.